Thursday, March 30, 2006

Antless Logs & Chickpea Spirals

This morning I made "veggie spirals" -- pasta colored with powdered spinach, beet, and tomato powder -- and tossed it with olive oil, garlic, parsley, and chickpeas. Up in the fruit section we have apple and orange slices (now that's an apple that's not going brown!). Over in the veggie department I used a small cookie cutter to make cucumber flowers and spread organic peanut butter on celery sticks (no raisins -- shmoo can't stand ants on his logs). For snacktime I tucked in another Thinkorganic! Cashew Pecan Bar, one of shmoo's new favorites.Verdict: Even antless, the logs got soundly rejected -- not even a nibble! But maybe I just packed too much, as he didn't finish all his fruit or cucumber, either. The pasta, however, was very well-received. 3 stars.

How about something Shmoo might like better in the celery - some vegan cream cheese? Pretty with paprika on top.

I ws a little puzzled about someone's comment previously about washing dishes by hand being better than in a dishwasher. Here's what Whole Foods says about that: Dishwashers use half the energy and 1/6 the water of a comparable amount of dishes washed by hand.

I mentioned that our utility bills have dropped by doing dishes by hand. I honestly don't care what Whole Foods says because I've seen my water usage drop by 1,000 gallons per month and my electric bill has gone down.

Of course that may be because I fill one half of the sink with warm soapy water and one with cold clear water. I wash in the soapy water and I rinse in the clear water. Like my great-grandmother, my grandmother and my mother before me.

I do not run the water while I wash, which probably cuts down on the amount of water that my washing by hand uses versus the way that others wash by hand.

Oh, who cares how people wash their dishes? Honestly, now...My family also loves that tri-color spiral pasta! That seems like a lovely sauce for a summer pasta salad! It'll be good for packing for a picnic I think.

Yeah, I think his little tummy just got too full to eat everything. It sure looks good too! I love that your lunches are so varied and for the most part not all that complicated to make! Anxiously awaiting that cook book!!!!!

Hey! I just ran across your awesome blog! I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian personally, but i do love to try new recipes, and i have several vegan and or vegetarian friends which I've now passed you along to. :) In my line of work I tend to run across people who are interested in this sort of thing so i hope you don't mind me passing your blog around alot. :) Beautiful lunches! Lucky kids! LOL

Fun shaped cookie cutters are the best! My mom sent me a set of them a couple of years ago...cutters for the all the various holidays. They are perfect for making vegan cream cheese sandwiches shaped like pumpkins and christmas trees and the like. Everyone loves them!

And in regard to the dish washing controversy...I've done it both ways...and no one has gotten sick. :)

poor shmoo, didn't like his logs. That was always one of my favorites! Still is. Now I'm craving celery....and peanut butter....uh oh! Did I mention before I was a notorious PB hater until I got pregnant! Still only eat it at cravings....but moving along....

I agree, that may have been too much food. Pasta and apples both fill up the tummys! Plus the pecan bar? That was probably filling as well!

I know the topic is closed, but I agree with Carole on the dishes. I lived in apartments for 5 years that did not have dishwashers. I generally used her method and never had problems with soap residue. The glasses I often rinsed extra well with running water, the rest I didn't bother.

I ask because having grown up in a country where single bowl sinks and high water charges were the norm, I never really bothered to rinse at all.

I'd wash dishes in the sink and then stack them upside down in the draining rack until all the soapy residue had run off them and evaporated. Everybody I knew did this (until dishwashers became affordable) and nobody ever got sick from it.

But then, the dish soap manufacturers know that the product is going to be used on eating utensils and formulate it accordingly. You'd probably get ill if you chugged the stuff, but a few soap bubbles aren't really likely to be a problem.

Getting back to the lunchbox, I'd say that it probably was a little too much food, but that it's better to pack too much than too little. Also that the cucumber flowers are extremely cute.

I agree with the other anonymous that we should all think about ways to conserve & preserve water. Waste not, Want not! I hate to think of a time when we want for water (says this with parched throat!)Sorry, Shmoo, this isn't the point of your lovely lunch box...you have a wonderful forum & vegans seem to care more. I haven't met many kids who do like logs!

Hi there- I love this blog! You have inspired me for sure. I was wondering when your book is coming out and if you have a title yet. Sorry if you mentioned this somewhere else, I've looked around and haven't seen it. Thanks again!

It's nice to know other kids aren't "bugs on a log" crazy, either. I love them, though -- the crunchy, clean taste of the celery mixed with the creamy taste of nut butter, and then little bursts of sweet from the raisins -- mmm!

>>Has anybody else noticed that some of the targeted Google ads on the sidebar are a little... off target?

Ugh! I signed up for "Google Adsense" this week. Their intelligent "algorithm" was supposed to read my site and figure out which ads would be best. For a while yesterday it started working and sending some good ads (Food Fight grocery, soy milk, etc.), but now it's back to "Oprah's secret artichoke dip" or some such nonsense. Nevermind, I'm bagging the whole thing! (grumble)

i would just like to say that i also wash my dishes by hand. it's not really an issue of water/energy conservation (although i can assure you that i use way less water and, of course, *no* electricity hand-washing them). for me, it's an issue of smell. i absolutely cannot stand the way dishes smell when they come out of a dishwasher. it completely grosses me out.

Wow! These comments have gotten kind of weird and ranty these days. I think this blog is so cool, and I can't understand the anti-vegan feelings that go on here. This is the sweetest, most low-key vegan blog I've ever read, and that's why I come here.

I think this lunch looks delish, and I will chime in that I have ALWAYS loved ants on a log, from childhood to now. Some kids like them, some don't, I guess! I think it has to do a lot with your perceptions of celery in general-- some love it, some (like my partner) would rather eat a bag of bricks than eat raw celery!

I love your blog- it's very inspirationsl to me as a mom, even though my family is not vegan, I'm always trying to improve the variety of food that my vegetarian kids eat, and you have a lot of great ideas, esp for presentation. Since I hadn't seen it yet, I was wondering if your family ever eats seaweed or veggie sushi, both big hits with my family. the seaweed sold in sheets as "seasoned laver" is not for sushi making, but is a delicious and mineral-packed snack that my kids like when cut into fun shapes or crushed and mixed into rice, which i shape into rice balls (usually with finely chopped veggies too) if you haven't tried it, it's a real treat!

one thing that i've heard mentioned on here is that the laptop set really helps with portion control. i think that is very important, since so many north americans today have such a skewed sense of what is a sensible portion (restaurants that serve burger with 3 patties, supersize fries, and a bladder-bursting soft drink as a meal is a good example). also, with the different containers, you can pack a few different foods for lunch. i know i'm much more excited about my lunch when i've packed more than just a single container of one food. also, it's just so nice and portable. personally, i eat a lot more food than can fit in the laptop set, but it does seem like a nice alternative to just shoving containers in a plastic shopping bad (like i do). last, but not least, it's environmentally friendly (no wasted sandwich bags or plastic wrap) and i'm assuming it's durable. if you can pack years worth of lunches in it, i think it's a good investment.

I love your cucumber flowers....particularly since I make them for my own son's lunch. I use an apple corer (the tube style) to "core" the cucumber. Then I insert a carrot (its seems very pornographic) and slice it. Then when I cut the cucumbers into flowers they have a pretty and delicious carrot center.

Micki that carrot-in-a-cucumber trick is so clever! Maybe you could use a pastry bag to fill the cukes with flavored cream cheese or Jennifer's ranch bean dip or hummus or the like. I bet if you refrigerated it first the filling would be firm enough to slice. Seems like a good healthy but fancy-feeling snack for grownups, too.

some of these comments are hilarious..just had to laugh when i saw one of the commenters above saying taht inserting a carrot into the cucumber sounded pornographic..anyways..never been a huge fan of celery..but i love PB..adn the rest of this lunch looks so good! anyways..jsut a note about the dishwashing..i actually had to calculate the energy used between a dishwasher adn hand washing dishes as part of an environmental science test..and believe it or not..dishwashers use less energy than handwashing..and although some claim to not rinse their dishes..just think of the soap chemicals going into your body..dishes were meant to be rinsed..anyways jsut my two cents

I have not commented here, but have been enjoying this site for a couple of weeks now. I bought the laptop lunch system a couple of years ago and love it except for the little dip container lids which split the first time I used them and the company and I emailed back and forth, but I never received the replacement lids they say were sent. But, even so, I love the system and use it often for myself and my younger kids. My 4 year old daughter loves to look at the lunches and will ask for different things she sees here. My 8 year old is a healthy, but not too adventurous an eater. The teenagers are human garbage cans.

I have watched the hand wash vs machine wash dishes and think that really it's a personal issue. I have a dishwasher. I love my dishwasher. But many evenings I still wash by hand. I live on a septic system and am very aware of everything that goes down the sink.

Love the cukes! I like to handwash the dishes and I don't own a dishwasher. Washing the dishes is my time alone away from my hectic life, and I find it very relaxing to do the dishes. Maybe I'm just weird. Like Jennifer pointed out, I wonder if the cost and environmental impact of manufacturing, tranporting, and disposing of dishwashers is factored into the calculations. Also, there is the human factor. I like doing the dishes alone or chatting with family members while doing dishes together. I have fond memories of my siblings washing dishes (and fighting over the chore) while singing and joking around as kids. Who gathers around a running dishwasher for family time?! Anyway, I love the cukes.

I am not a vegan but I've enjoyed your site "veganlunchbox" more other sites about food. I have to tell you that you have a gift wich can be seen in your presentation. You know the stuff and know how to use it.

I like this blog even when I'm neither vegan nor vegetarian. I'm just someone who doesn't like the taste of red meat and was born and raised and still lives in the paradise of red meat, Argentina. Getting easy and delicious recipes without a cow involved is very hard here ;)

And, if your kid likes it... I'm sure I will too. I can't get here many of the ingredients you have there, but some I can find over Buenos Aires' Asian neighboarhoods, and some other times I just Google for replacements.

Thanks for your blog!

About hand-washing and dishwashers... I don't know even one person who has one of those things... they are very expensive. I use a soft soap, not one made for dishes but a liquid and organic, home-made (not by me) hand and body soap. People thinks I'm crazy, but I have a tendency for skin allergies and just take car of hands this way. And yes, I rinse the dishes... even when the soap I use has no chemical foaming ingredients. I hate when I put water on a glass and it gets unnatural bubbles ;)

Great site, love the food and most of all, the love and effort you put into Schmoo's lunches. You're setting up a tough act to follow though! It's a looong way off for Schmoo but...I just moved in with my boyfriend and his doting mother's love and care were all too evident. "How do I steam veggies?" comes to mind as one of my favourite of his questions...actually this should go to doting moms everywhere, teach ALL your kids to cook, not just your daughters!

My family and I are not vegan, but I find your site fascinating, and often check it out. I would be interested to know what kind of foods Shmoo's classmates take to school.

Here in New Zealand, standard lunch fare would be a few biscuits for morning tea, a sandwich and a piece of fruit for lunch, and water to drink. There might be an occasional treat (a small bag of potato chips, a muesli bar).

My sons (aged 7 and 9) often don't get through all of their food, because they are keen to get outside and play, so it amazes me that Shmoo usually gets through the entire contents of his box.

I've never heard of ants on logs or antless logs before, it's just not a British thing... But I've tried them and what a BRILLIANT way to eat peanut butter! It even disguises the taste of the celery, hurrah!